Lyme cases could shoot up this season

Poughkeepsie Journal
Indications are this year could be among the worst for incidences of Lyme disease in the region, according to a local ecologist whose research focuses on the ecology of ticks and the diseases they carry.

Rick Ostfeld, of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, said this week at least half his team of 15 field technicians have contracted Lyme disease, or some other tick-borne illness, this year. He said usually only a couple of his workers are stricken each year.

"This is unprecedented," Ostfeld said. "If my field crew is any indication, this is one of the worst Lyme disease years in a long time, if not ever."

Dutchess County Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Caldwell said there are indications more ticks are around this year, increasing the risk humans could contract Lyme. He said his agency is seeing the usual, heavy amount of Lyme disease cases around the county this year.

A boost to federal efforts to prevent and treat Lyme disease could be coming under an updated bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah, and a New Jersey congressman this week. The bill seeks $100 million over five years for fighting the illness.

High rates of Lyme disease in the mid-Hudson Valley are not unusual. Dutchess County has for years had one of the highest incidence rates in the nation.

Bipartisan support

The proposed federal legislation, sponsored by Kelly and U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., matches a Senate version of the bill introduced Monday with bipartisan sponsorship. Kelly and Smith had each proposed competing versions of Lyme legislation this year.

Symptoms of Lyme disease include a bull's-eye rash, fever, malaise, fatigue, headache, muscle and joint aches. Lyme can be treated with antibiotics, but isn't always easy to diagnose.

More must be done at the federal level to prevent and treat Lyme disease, Kelly said in a written statement.

"Passage of this bill would mark a significant first step toward a coordinated federal effort to better understand and treat Lyme disease," Kelly said.

The bill would:

- Require the development of a diagnostic test to better detect Lyme and other tick-borne disorders.

- Authorize federal funding for increased research into diagnosis and treatments for Lyme disease, as well as increasing community education regarding prevention.

- Create an advisory committee in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help develop and implement improved activities for the prevention and control of the disease.

Jill Auerbach, chairwoman of the Hudson Valley Lyme Disease Association, was encouraged identical bills have been introduced in both houses of Congress.

Advocates were divided

Lyme advocates around the region had been split over the bills introduced by Kelly and Smith. Smith's bill had called for $100 million in funding; Kelly's original proposal called for $50 million.

If approved, the legislation could help shed more light on a still somewhat mysterious illness, Auerbach said.

"This will provide funding and research for that purpose," she said.

Ostfeld, the Millbrook ecologist, has scientific evidence supporting a projected spike in Lyme disease cases this year. It has to do with acorns and mice.

A bumper crop of acorns on forest floors in 2003 helped boost the white-footed mouse population last summer, he explained.

The acorns are a key source of food for the mice, a principal host for the blood-sucking ticks that carry Lyme disease.

The tiny ticks that fed on the mice last summer, and were infected with Lyme, could be spreading the disease to humans this summer, he said.